Care for patients with terminal illness is gaining increased prominence in the continuum of care for cancer patients. Cancer survivorship research focuses on the health and life of individuals diagnosed with and living with the late or long-term effects of cancer and its treatments. It also encompasses the needs of patients with advanced disease. There is a dearth of well-designed clinical research focusing on palliative care in cancer patients and especially those who are near the end of life. There are many reasons for this, including ethical dilemmas in conducting such trials, communication barriers between specialties, and unclear standards for best care practices. To ensure that patients with incurable illnesses are offered the best available care, it is essential to develop and disseminate research methodologies well suited to this population. Given the multidimensional and culture-dependent nature of the end of life experience, it is necessary to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to developing research methods. As a means of initiating the process of palliative clinical research methodology development we propose to target malignant bowel obstruction (MBO), a common clinical problem for which palliative care research is clearly needed. Although a plethora of treatment options for MBO have been proposed, existing literature offers little guidance with regard to algorithms for optimal management. We propose to convene an interdisciplinary summit of national leaders in quality of life research, ethno-cultural variability, palliative medicine, surgical oncology, gastroenterology, major consortium research, medical ethics, and patient advocacy/cancer survivors in Pasadena, California, on November 12-13, 2004. Participants have also been selected to represent the broad ethnic and racial perspectives required to develop culturally sensitive research methods. Using MBO as a model, a consensus will be attained for methodological approaches and the implementation of palliative care research. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]